Meta has announced a 'Personal Boundary' feature for Horizon
Worlds and Horizon Venues virtual reality (VR) systems.
The feature will, by default, make it feel like there is an
almost four-foot distance between your avatar and others.
“Over time, we'll continue to make improvements as we learn
how this affects people's experiences," said Vivek Sharma, Vice President,
Horizon.
If someone tries to enter your Personal Boundary, the system
will halt their forward movement as they reach the boundary.
"You won't feel it -- there is no haptic feedback. This
builds upon our existing hand harassment measures that were already in place,
where an avatar's hands would disappear if they encroached upon someone's
personal space," Sharma said in a blog post late on Friday.
Sharma thinks this will help to set behavioural norms -- and
that's important for a relatively new medium like VR.
"In the future, we'll explore the possibility of adding
in new controls and UI changes, like letting people customise the size of their
Personal Boundary," he informed.
Meta rolled out Horizon Worlds to the public following a
long period of beta testing.
One beta user had complained that her avatar had been groped
by a stranger.